Method and system for online advertising

BACKGROUND

00011. Technical Field

0002The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for Internet services. Particularly, the present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for online advertising.

00032. Discussion of Technical Background

0004Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine result pages, banner ads, blogs, rich media ads, interstitial ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks, and e-mail marketing. Many of these types of ads are delivered by an advertising serving mechanism such as an advertising server.

0005<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> illustrates a prior art system <b>100</b> for online advertising. The system <b>100</b> includes an advertising serving mechanism <b>102</b> for delivering advertisers' <b>104</b> advertisements stored in the advertisement archive <b>106</b> to users <b>108</b>. Display advertising may appear on the users' <b>108</b> web pages in many forms, including web banners. In <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>, an individualized advertising mechanism <b>110</b> may be employed in conjunction with the advertising serving mechanism <b>102</b> to provide personalized display advertising for each individual user <b>108</b> based on the user's profile and online behaviors. However, the prior art system <b>100</b> merely establishes a unidirectional communication channel from the advertisers <b>104</b> to the users <b>108</b> for delivering marketing messages. Information, such as users' feedback on the delivered messages, is not effectively provided to the advertisers <b>104</b>. The prior art system <b>100</b> also lacks an effective means to identify the most-wanted audiences from all the available users <b>108</b> for each advertiser <b>104</b> in order to provide targeted advertising. Moreover, the prior art system <b>100</b> applies traditional revenue models, such as cost per impression, cost per visitor, cost per click, annual service fee, etc., which lack flexibilities, in particular, in social network settings.

0006Therefore, there is a need to provide an improved solution for online advertising through a bi-directional communication channel between the most-relevant entities and targets and a flexible monetization scheme in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.

SUMMARY

0007The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for online advertising.

0008In one example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified based on a first piece of information related to each target and a second piece of information related to the entity. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. A connection is established between the entity and each identified target through a bi-directional communication channel. Activities between the entity and each target through the bi-directional communication channel are monitored. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to the delivered content, the identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel.

0009In another example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. A first piece of information related to a user is obtained. One or more entities are identified, with respect to the user, based on the first piece of information related to the user and a second piece of information related to each entity. Each identified entity is capable of providing content, and the one or more identified entities are considered as likely having content that is of interest of the user. A connection is established between the user and each identified entity through a bi-directional communication channel. One or more pieces of content that can be made available by each identified entity are identified based on the first piece of information related to the user and the second piece of information related to each identified entity. The delivery of the identified one or more pieces of content is facilitated from each identified entity through the bi-directional communication channel established between each identified entity and the user. The identified entity delivers the identified one or more pieces of content to the user through the bi-directional communication channel therebetween. In response to the delivered one or more pieces of content, the user is able to provide a feedback to the identified entity through the bi-directional communication channel therebetween.

0010In still another example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. A mechanism for observing communication between each identified target and the entity is automatically set up via a bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and each identified target. A volume of content delivered by the entity to a corresponding identified target through the bi-directional communication channel therebetween is monitored with respect to each bi-directional communication channel. A monetary amount to be charged to the entity is calculated based on the monitored volume of content delivered from the entity to each identified target.

0011In yet another example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified based on an influence level of each target on a social network platform. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. A connection between the entity and each identified target is established through a bi-directional communication channel. Activities between the entity and each identified target through the bi-directional communication channel are monitored. Information related to the monitored activities is provided to the entity to facilitate the entity to determine whether to send the content to each identified target. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to delivered content, the identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel.

0012In yet another example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified based on a first piece of information related to each target and a second piece of information related to the entity. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. The entity is recommended to the identified one or more targets to follow the entity. A connection between the entity and each identified target through a bi-directional communication channel is established on a social network platform based on a response to the recommendation. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to the delivered content, the identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel.

0013In yet another example, a method, implemented on at least one machine each of which has at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for online advertising, is disclosed. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified based on a first piece of information related to each target and a second piece of information related to the entity. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. The entity is facilitated to send invitations to the identified one or more targets to follow the entity. A connection between the entity and each identified target through a bi-directional communication channel is established on a social network platform based on a response to the invitations. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to the delivered content, the identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel.

0014In a different example, a system for online advertising is disclosed. The system comprises an identifier, a connection initiator, and an online activity monitor. The identifier is configured to identify one or more targets associated with an entity based on a first piece of information related to each target and a second piece of information related to the entity. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. The connection initiator is configured to establish a connection between the entity and each identified target through a bi-directional communication channel. The online activity monitor is configured to monitor activities between the entity and each identified target through the bi-directional communication channel. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to the delivered content, each identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel

0015Other concepts relate to software for online advertising. A software product, in accordance with this concept, includes at least one machine-readable non-transitory medium and information carried by the medium. The information carried by the medium may be executable program code data regarding parameters in association with a request or operational parameters, such as information related to a user, a request, or a social group, etc.

0016In one example, a machine readable and non-transitory medium having information recorded thereon for online advertising, wherein the information, when read by the machine, causes the machine to perform a series of steps. One or more targets associated with an entity are identified based on a first piece of information related to each target and a second piece of information related to the entity. The one or more targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. A connection is established between the entity and each identified target through a bi-directional communication channel. Activities between the entity and each target through the bi-directional communication channel are monitored. The entity delivers the content to an identified target through the bi-directional communication channel established between the entity and the identified target. In response to the delivered content, the identified target is able to provide a feedback to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0017The methods, systems, and/or programming described herein are further described in terms of exemplary embodiments. These exemplary embodiments are described in detail with reference to the drawings. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplary embodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similar structures throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:

0018<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> depicts a prior art system for online advertising;

0019<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a high level exemplary system diagram of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0020<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is another high level exemplary system diagrams of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0021<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> is still another high level exemplary system diagrams of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0022<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0023<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> is a flowchart of another exemplary process of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0024<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 7</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary ad-target identifier of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0025<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 8</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the ad-target identifier, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0026<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 9</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary target-ad identifier of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0027<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 10</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the target-ad identifier, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0028<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 11</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary connection initiator of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0029<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 12</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the connection initiator, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0030<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 13</figref> depicts bi-directional communication channels established between entities and targets, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0031<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 14</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between one entity and multiple targets on a social network platform, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0032<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 15</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between multiple entities and one target on a social network platform, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0033<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 16</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between one entity and multiple targets, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0034<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 17</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between multiple entities and one target, according to an embodiment of the present teaching;

0035<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 18</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary online activity monitor of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching; and

0036<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 19</figref> depicts a general computer architecture on which the present teaching can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

0037In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present teachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, systems, components, and/or circuitry have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings.

0038The present disclosure describes method, system, and programming aspects of online advertising. The method and system as disclosed herein is capable of building a bi-directional real-time communication channel for advertisers and their most-wanted audiences on social network platforms. The online advertising mechanism employed in the present disclosure is not only impression based, but more facilities an individualized two-way communication between the advertisers and targets to enhance advertising quality, thereby preventing massively dumping the same advertisement to the targets. Compared to the traditional display advertising with high-level metadata information, more dynamic, fine-grained and time-sensitive information about a product may be presented to the targets in a real-time manner by the method and system as disclosed herein. Furthermore, the method and system provide an individualized platform to rank advertisers/advertisements for users and to rank users for advertisers based on profiling of both the users and advertisers/advertisements. Moreover, the present disclosure provides a more flexible monetization scheme based upon information exchange through the bi-directional communication channel between the advertisers and the targets, such as the volume of information, size of the audiences, or the relationship of the connection.

0039Additional advantages and novel features will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The advantages of the present teachings may be realized and attained by practice or use of various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below.

0040<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a high level illustration of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The system <b>200</b> includes a bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b>, an advertising serving mechanism <b>204</b>, a plurality of advertising-related archives <b>206</b>, <b>208</b>, <b>210</b>, and a plurality user-related archives <b>212</b>, <b>214</b>, <b>216</b>. In this example, the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b> serves as a bi-directional communication channel between entities <b>218</b>, e.g., business entities or advertisers, and targets <b>220</b>. The targets <b>220</b> in this example are users who are identified, by the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b>, as the wanted audience of the entities <b>218</b>.

0041The bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b> may include a target-ad identifier <b>222</b>, an ad-target identifier <b>224</b>, a target-ad archive <b>226</b>, and an ad-target archive <b>228</b>. The target-ad identifier <b>222</b> is responsible for identifying, with respect to each target <b>220</b>, one or more entities <b>218</b> based on information related to the entities <b>218</b>, such as the information stored in the advertisement archive <b>206</b>, promotion archive <b>208</b>, and advertiser profile archive <b>210</b>. The identified entities for each target may be stored in the target-ad archive <b>226</b> and retrieved by the advertising serving mechanism <b>204</b> to deliver the corresponding content, e.g., advertisements, promotion messages, to each target <b>220</b>. The ad-target identifier <b>224</b>, on the other hand, is configured to identify one or more targets <b>220</b> for each entity <b>218</b> based on information related to the targets <b>220</b>, such as the information stored in the target-related content archive <b>212</b>, target activity archive <b>214</b>, and target profile archive <b>216</b>. The identified targets for each entity may be stored in the ad-target archive <b>228</b>. Each entity <b>218</b> then may conduct targeted advertising to their identified most-wanted audiences through the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b>, e.g., by delivering advertisement and promotion content to the targets <b>220</b>. The feedback of the delivered content may be received from one or more targets <b>220</b> and provided to the entities <b>218</b> through the same bi-directional advertising network platform <b>202</b>.

0042<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is another high level illustration of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The system <b>300</b> in this example is adapted to any social network platform, such as but not limited to, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, RENREN, WEIBO, QQ, etc. In addition to the target-ad identifier <b>222</b>, ad-target identifier <b>224</b>, target-ad archive <b>226</b>, and ad-target-archive <b>228</b> as descried above in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref>, the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>302</b> in this example further includes a connection initiator <b>304</b> and an online activity monitor <b>306</b>. The connection initiator <b>304</b> in this example is configured to establish a connection between an entity <b>218</b> and a target <b>220</b> through a bi-directional communication channel on a social network platform. In one example, the connection initiator <b>304</b> may be responsible for creating an account for the entity <b>218</b> and/or the target <b>220</b> on the social network platform and recommend the entity account to the targets <b>220</b> to follow the entity <b>218</b>. Once the recommendation is accepted, the entity <b>218</b> may deliver content, such as advertisement or promotion content, to the target account in the form of a social network message, for example. The target <b>220</b>, in response to the delivered content, may provide feedback to the entity account in the form of a social network message or activity, such as clicking, commenting, liking/disliking, or forwarding. In another example, once the targets <b>220</b> are identified, the list of targets may be provided to the entity <b>218</b> to determine whether an invitation to follow the entity <b>218</b> should be sent to the identified targets <b>220</b>. That is, in this example, the connection initiator <b>304</b> may be responsible for facilitating the entity <b>218</b> to send invitations to the identified targets <b>220</b> to follow the entity <b>218</b> on the social network platform. Once the invitation is accepted, the entity <b>218</b> may deliver content, such as advertisement or promotion content, to the target account in the form of a social network message, for example. The target <b>220</b>, in response to the delivered content, may provide feedback to the entity account in the form of a social network message or activity, such as clicking, commenting, liking/disliking, or forwarding.

0043The online activity monitor <b>306</b> in this example is configured to monitor activities between the entity <b>218</b> and target <b>220</b> through the bi-directional communication channel. The activities include any online activities performed by the entity <b>218</b> or the target <b>220</b> on the social network platform through the bi-directional communication channel, such as information exchange in the form of social network messages, account creation, connection establishment or termination, or responding to received messages, e.g., clicking, commenting, liking/disliking, forwarding. The monitored activities may be applied by the entities <b>218</b> to facilitate the entities <b>218</b> to determine whether to send content to each identified target <b>220</b>. The monitored activities may be also utilized by the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>302</b> to calculate a monetary mount to be charged to the entities <b>218</b> based on information related to the monitored activities in accordance with any suitable monetization schemes.

0044<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> is still another high level illustration of a system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The system <b>400</b> in this example is similar to the system <b>300</b> shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> except that the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>402</b> in this example further includes an advertising serving mechanism <b>404</b> as part of the bi-directional advertising network platform <b>402</b>. Thus, the display format of the advertising content in this example may be different from the one in the system <b>300</b>, i.e., social network messages. For example, the advertising serving mechanism <b>404</b> may retrieve the advertising content from the advertisement archive <b>206</b> or promotion archive <b>208</b> for a specific entity <b>218</b> and display the content as regular display advertising on the web pages of the identified targets' <b>220</b> social network accounts. In this case, the impressions of the display advertising may be also taken into account in calculating the monetary mount to be charged to the entities <b>218</b>.

0045<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Starting from block <b>502</b>, one or more targets are identified for an entity. The targets are considered as likely being interested in content that can be made available by the entity. At block <b>504</b>, if there are more than one target that has been identified at block <b>502</b>, the targets are ranked and filtered based on various parameters, such as the relevance with respect to the entity, the influence level in the social network settings, or purchasing intent and probability. Moving to block <b>506</b>, a connection between the entity and each identified target is established through a bi-directional communication channel. At block <b>508</b>, content, e.g., advertisements, is delivered by the entity to each identified target through the bi-directional communication channel. At block <b>510</b>, whether an identified target provides any feedback in response to the delivered content is determined. If so, at block <b>512</b>, the feedback is delivered to the entity through the bi-directional communication channel. Nevertheless, at block <b>514</b>, activities between the entity and each target through the bi-directional communication channel are monitored.

0046<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> is a flowchart of another exemplary process of online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Starting from block <b>602</b>, one or more entities are identified for a user. Each identified entity is capable of providing content, and the one or more identified entities are considered as likely having content that is of interest of the user. At block <b>604</b>, if there are more than one entity that has been identified at block <b>602</b>, the entities are ranked and filtered based on various parameters, such as the relevance with respect to the user. Moving to block <b>606</b>, a connection between the user and each identified entity is established through a bi-directional communication channel. At block <b>608</b>, content, e.g., advertisements, is delivered by each identified entity to the user through the bi-directional communication channel. At block <b>610</b>, whether the user provides any feedback in response to the delivered content is determined. If so, at block <b>612</b>, the feedback is delivered to the entities through the bi-directional communication channel. Nevertheless, at block <b>614</b>, activities between the user and each identified entity through the bi-directional communication channel are monitored. Optionally, one or more pieces of content that can be made available by each identified entity may be further identified and ranked based on various parameters, such as the relevance with respect to the user and the effectiveness of delivering each piece of content by the entity.

0047It is understood that although <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> and <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> are directed to aspects of identifying and ranking targets for an entity and identifying and ranking entity for a user, respectively, the processes in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> and <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> may be combined in other examples. That is, the most-relevant and influential users for each entity may be identified first based on user social and behavior analysis and mining. Given that an identified user (target) may be interested in multiple entities/advertisements, entities/advertisements may be further identified and ranked with respect to the specific target in the same process.

0048<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 7</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary ad-target identifier of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The ad-target identifier <b>224</b> includes a target information fetcher <b>702</b>, a target characterization module <b>704</b>, an advertising information fetcher <b>706</b>, an advertising characterization module <b>708</b>, and an ad-target relevance analyzer <b>710</b>. The target information fetcher <b>702</b> in this example is responsible for fetching information related to each target from the various target-related information archives. The target-related information archives include, for example, the target profile archive <b>216</b> storing information reflecting profile of each target (e.g., gender, age, location, occupation, etc.), the target activity archive <b>214</b> storing information about online activities of each target (e.g., browsing behaviors, actions in social network environments, etc.), the target-related content archive <b>212</b> storing information about content related to each target (e.g., articles, text, video, and audio that are created or consumed by each target), and an influential target archive <b>712</b> storing information related to a social influence level of each target. It is understood that any other suitable target-related information archive may be included as well. For example, an information archive storing information reflecting a purchasing behavior of each target (e.g., online purchasing history data) may be available for providing purchasing behavior information to the target information fetcher <b>702</b>. The target characterization module <b>704</b> is configured to characterize each target based on the corresponding target-related information fetched from the various information archives to create a plurality of target vectors. The target vectors include, for example, a category vector, a keyword vector, or a latent variable vector for reflecting each target's interest.

0049Similarly, the advertising information fetcher <b>706</b> is configured to fetch entity-related information from various entity-related information archives. In this example, the advertiser profile archive <b>210</b> may include information reflecting profile of each entity (e.g., location, products, etc.); the advertisement archive <b>206</b> and promotion archive <b>208</b> may include information about each piece of content to be delivered by the entity (e.g., product promotions, new model releases, celebrity endorsements, etc.). It is understood that, some of the entity-related information may be obtained through the metadata of the content to be delivered by the entity, and an advertising metadata enhancement module <b>714</b> may be applied to obtain more entity-related information through enhancement and enrichment of the metadata. Nevertheless, all the obtained entity-related information is fed into the advertising characterization module <b>708</b> to create entity vectors by characterizing each entity's related information. In this example, the entity vectors include, for example, a category vector, a keyword vector, or a latent variable vector for reflecting each entity's interest. It is understood that, for each piece of content, e.g., an advertisement to be delivered by an advertiser, content vectors may be created as well to reflect each piece of content's topic. That is, the characterization of entity-related information may be performed at both the entity level and content level. For example, each advertiser may be characterized to profile its interest, while each advertisement of the advertiser may be further characterized to specify a fine topic. In one example, an advertiser may be characterized under the category of “cars,” and advertisements that can be made available by this advertiser may be further characterized under the various categories, for example, “vans,” “sports cars,” “hybrid cars,” “Toyota,” etc.

0050In this example, the ad-target relevance analyzer <b>710</b> is configured to analyze the relevance between each pair of entity and target based on a relevance model <b>716</b> to generate an ad-target relevance score <b>718</b> for each pair of entity and target. In this example, the relevance model <b>716</b> may be any suitable machine learned matching function between the target vectors and entity vectors. For a given entity, e.g., an advertiser, or an advertisement, relevance scores <b>718</b> for the targets are obtained by applying the machine learned matching function.

0051In this example, the ad-target identifier <b>224</b> further includes a target influence analyzer <b>720</b> for calculating target influence scores <b>726</b> based on the information related to the social influence level of each target. The target influence analyzer <b>720</b> may include a link analysis module <b>722</b> configured to apply link analysis, such as PageRank or any suitable web-linked based ranking algorithms to social networks based on targets' social connections. Each target's influence score <b>726</b> may be affected by its page ranking calculated by the link analysis module <b>722</b>. The target influence analyzer <b>720</b> may also include a topical link analysis module <b>724</b> configured to apply topical link propagation algorithms, such as topical PageRank, to the social networks. One or more high influence targets may be identified, as labeled seeds, on the social network platforms first before applying the topical link propagation algorithms. The high influence targets may be celebrities in the social networks, who have been manually classified into predetermined categories/topics. The celebrities may be automatically determined, for example, by the number of followers on the social network platforms or manually verified. Followers of the high influence target in the social networks are deemed as targets influenced by the identified high influence target and likely have the same topic of interest of the high influence target. In this example, both the results from the link analysis module <b>722</b> and topical link analysis module <b>724</b> for a given target is combined into the target influence score <b>726</b>, which is independent of any entity.

0052In this example, the ad-target identifier <b>224</b> further includes a target purchasing analyzer <b>728</b> responsible for calculating target purchasing scores <b>730</b> reflecting each target's purchasing intent and probability based on, for example, the target's online purchasing history and pattern. As purchasing intent and probability are important for the effectiveness of online advertising, target purchasing scores <b>730</b> may be considered as a boost factor in this example and provided to the targets ranking module <b>732</b> and targets filtering module <b>734</b>, along with the ad-target relevance scores <b>718</b> and the target influence scores <b>726</b>. In this example, different scores may be combined for each entity-target pair with the same or different weights. The combined score is applied by the targets ranking module <b>732</b> to rank all available targets for a given advertiser or advertisement. The targets filtering module <b>734</b> may apply different rules to filter out certain targets. In one example, each entity may specify or constrain a maximum number N of targets they are interested in, so only the top N ranked targets are kept after filtering. In another example, targets that have voluntarily followed the entity on any social network platform may be excluded by the targets filtering module <b>734</b>. An ad-target indexer <b>736</b> may be responsible for making index of identified targets for each entity and store the index into the ad-target archive <b>228</b>.

0053<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 8</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the ad-target identifier, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Starting from block <b>802</b>, information related to targets is fetched. The information includes, for example, information reflecting profile of each target, information about online activities of each target, information about content related to each target, information related to a social influence level of each target, and information reflecting a purchasing behavior of each target. At block <b>804</b>, each target is characterized based on corresponding fetched information to create target vectors. At block <b>806</b>, information related to each advertiser or advertisement is fetched, such as information reflecting profile of the advertiser, information about each advertisement, and information about effectiveness of delivering each advertisement by the advertiser. At block <b>808</b>, each advertiser or advertisement is characterized based on the corresponding fetched information to create entity or content vectors. Moving to block <b>810</b>, the target vectors and entity or content vectors are used to calculate ad-target relevance scores based on, for example, any machine learned matching function. At block <b>812</b>, target influence scores are also calculated based on each target's social influence level. At block <b>814</b>, target purchasing scores are calculated as a boost factor based on each target's purchasing behavior. Proceeding to block <b>816</b>, for each advertiser or advertisement, all the available targets are ranked based on a score combing the ad-target relevance score, target influence score, and target purchasing score. At block <b>818</b>, certain targets may be excluded from consideration, leaving the rest targets as the identified targets for each advertiser or advertisement. Eventually, at block <b>820</b>, identified targets for each advertiser or advertisement are indexed.

0054<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 9</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary target-ad identifier of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The same components that have been described above in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 7</figref> will not be described again. The target-ad identifier <b>222</b> in this example further includes an advertising effectiveness evaluator <b>902</b> configured to calculate advertising effectiveness scores <b>904</b> for all the entities, e.g., advertisers, and their advertisements based on their online activities monitored by the online activity monitor <b>306</b> in accordance with an activity evaluation model <b>906</b>. For example, the activity evaluation model <b>906</b> may be any suitable statistical machine learning model. In one example, various web search click modeling techniques may be applied where the acceptance of a connection request from an entity corresponds to a click (therefore a positive example). As described above, ad-target relevance scores <b>718</b> may be also calculated by the ad-target relevance analyzer <b>710</b> for each entity-target pair. The advertising effectiveness scores <b>904</b> and relevance scores <b>718</b> are combined and provided to the advertising ranking module <b>908</b> and advertising filtering module <b>910</b> to identify one or more entities, e.g., advertisers, or advertisements for each target (user). It is noted that, the ranking and filtering of the advertisers or advertisements may be also affected by a bid rate (cost per byte per follower at a certain position) in a second-price auction model. The second price may be charged for the entity as part of the monetization scheme. A target-ad indexer <b>912</b> may be responsible for making index of identified advertisers or advertisements for each user and store the index into the target-ad archive <b>226</b>.

0055<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 10</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the target-ad identifier, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Starting from block <b>802</b>, information related to targets is fetched. The information includes, for example, information reflecting profile of each target, information about online activities of each target, information about content related to each target, information related to a social influence level of each target, and information reflecting a purchasing behavior of each target. At block <b>804</b>, each target is characterized based on corresponding fetched information to create target vectors. At block <b>806</b>, information related to each advertiser or advertisement is fetched, such as information reflecting profile of the advertiser, information about each advertisement, and information about the effectiveness of delivering each advertisement by the advertiser. At block <b>808</b>, each advertiser or advertisement is characterized based on the corresponding fetched information to create entity or content vectors. Moving to block <b>810</b>, the target vectors and entity or content vectors are used to calculate ad-target relevance scores based on, for example, any machine learned matching function. At block <b>1002</b>, online activities between the entities and targets that reflect the effectiveness of delivering content, e.g., advisements, to the users, are monitored. At block <b>1004</b>, effectiveness scores are calculated based on the monitored activities in accordance with, for example, any suitable web search click models. Proceeding to block <b>1006</b>, for each user, all the available advertisers or advertisements are ranked based on a score combing the ad-target relevance score and advertising effectiveness score. At block <b>1008</b>, certain advertisers or advertisements may be excluded from consideration, leaving the rest advertisers or advertisements as the identified advertisers or advertisements for each user. Eventually, at block <b>1010</b>, identified advertisers or advertisements for each user are indexed.

0056<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 11</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary connection initiator of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The connection initiator <b>304</b> includes an advertiser sign-up unit <b>1102</b>, an advertiser-target connector <b>1104</b>, a connection recommendation unit <b>1106</b>, a recommendation feedback unit <b>1108</b>, and a connection control unit <b>1110</b>. The advertiser sign-up unit <b>1102</b> is configured to, in response to a request, create an advertiser account <b>1112</b> for each advertiser on the social network platform based on the profile of the advertiser retrieved from the advertiser profile archive <b>210</b>. Different account types <b>1114</b> may be assigned to the advertiser accounts <b>1112</b> and may affect the relationship between the advertiser and the identified targets on the social network platform. The advertiser-target connector <b>1104</b> is responsible for establishing the bi-directional communication channel between the advertiser accounts <b>1112</b> and the target accounts <b>1116</b> on the social network platform. In this example, the connection recommendation unit <b>1106</b> may recommend the advertiser account <b>1112</b> to the corresponding identified targets to follow based on the index stored in the ad-target archive <b>228</b>. In response to the recommendation, the target accounts <b>1116</b> may accept, reject, or ignore the recommendation through the recommendation feedback unit <b>1108</b>. The results are then provided to the advertiser-target connector <b>1104</b> to determine whether a bi-directional communication channel can be established and what kind of relationship exists between the advertiser account <b>1112</b> and the corresponding target account <b>1116</b>. In one example, a permanent/premium relationship does not expire as long as the target does not explicitly disable the connection. In another example, a temporary/short-term relationship may be established so that the connection is valid during a specified period of time, for example, for a seasonal advertising campaign. In still another example, an implicit relationship means that the target does not explicitly accept the following recommendation. In this example, the connection between each advertiser account <b>1112</b> and the corresponding target account <b>1116</b> may be maintained and controlled by the connection control unit <b>1110</b>. For example, for any communication channel built upon the temporary/short-term relationship, the connection control unit <b>1110</b> may terminate the connection once the specified period of time is over. It is understood that, although <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 11</figref> describes the connection initiator <b>304</b> from the entity's (advertiser) perspective, the same mechanism may be used to create a target account <b>1116</b> for a user and recommend the target account <b>1116</b> to an advertiser account <b>1102</b> to follow, i.e., in the opposite way.

0057<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 12</figref> is a flowchart of an exemplary process of the connection initiator, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Beginning at block <b>1202</b>, an account is created for each advertiser on the social network platform. At block <b>1204</b>, for each identified target, the corresponding advertiser accounts are recommended for the target to follow. At block <b>1206</b>, if the target does not accept the recommendation of a specific advertiser account, then an implicit connection is established between the target account and the advertiser account at block <b>1208</b>. If the target accepts the recommendation to follow at block <b>1206</b>, an explicit connection is built at block <b>1210</b>. Whether the advertiser account is a temporary/short-term type is determined at block <b>1212</b>. If so, the connection between the temporary/short-term advertiser account and the target account is terminated at block <b>1214</b> when the account expires. Otherwise, the advertiser account is a permanent/premium type, and the explicit connection between the permanent/premium advertiser account and the target account is maintained at block <b>1216</b> unless the target account explicitly terminates the connection.

0058<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 13</figref> depicts bi-directional communication channels established between entities and targets, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Once the connection initiator <b>304</b> establishes the direct connections between the entities and corresponding targets on the social network platform, a bi-directional real-time communication channel is available for each pair of entity and target to exchange information directly. For example, the advertisers may broadcast content, such as product promotions, new model releases, celebrity endorsements, to their followers, i.e., identified users, in the form of social network messages. Meanwhile, the identified users may provide timely and direct feedback to the advertisers, or forward and comment the messages to their friends. Once the connections are established on the social network platforms, the communication is bi-directional, and the users can provide their feedback via the same channel. As shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 13</figref>, all the activities between the advertisers and users through the bi-directional communication channels are monitored by the online activity monitor <b>306</b> of the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b>, and the information related to the monitored activities may be used for determining the monetary amount to be charged to the advertisers.

0059It is understood that, the connections between the advertisers and users may be symmetric or asymmetric. As described above, for a given entity (advertiser) “A,” the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> may identify one or more corresponding targets (users) “a,” “b,” . . . “n.” On the other hand, for a given target “a,” the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> may also identify one or more corresponding entities. If the entity “A” is also identified as the one of the corresponding entities for the target “a,” then the connection between entity “A” and target “a” is symmetric. If the entity “A” is not identified as one of the corresponding entities for target “a,” then the connection is asymmetric. For example, the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> may identify a celebrity as one of the most-wanted audience for an advertiser of economical cars because of the celebrity's high social influence and purchasing intent of cars. However, when the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> identifies potential entities, e.g., car manufacturers, dealerships, and advertisers of cars, for the celebrity, the advertiser of economical cars may be not on the identified entity list. In this situation, the connection is asymmetric in the sense that only the target is recommended to the entity, but the entity is not recommended to the same target. In one example, the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> may restrict that only symmetric connections are valid. In other examples, the asymmetric connections may be also kept by the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b>, and different monetization schemes may be applied to symmetric connections and asymmetric connections. For example, a higher rate may be charged to the advertiser for a symmetric connection than an asymmetric connection.

0060<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 14</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between one entity and multiple targets on a social network platform, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. In this example, a plurality of targets are identified for the advertiser, and the bi-directional communication channels are established between the advertiser account <b>1112</b> and the target accounts <b>1116</b>. The advertiser account <b>1112</b> on the social network platform may include a social network message broadcasting unit <b>1402</b> and a feedback output <b>1404</b>. The social network message broadcasting unit <b>1402</b> may be any suitable mechanism on the social network platform to broadcast messages to its followers, such as status updating, posting, forwarding, private messaging, etc. The messages are broadcasted to all the identified targets based on the index in the ad-target archive <b>228</b>, and the content of the messages is retrieved from the available archives, such as the advertisement archive <b>206</b> or promotion archive <b>208</b>. Each target account <b>1116</b> includes a social network message output <b>1406</b> for presenting the received messages from the advertiser account <b>1112</b> either in the regular message display section of the account or in a separate “sponsored” section. Each target account <b>1116</b> may also include a feedback input <b>1408</b> for providing feedback in response to the received messages. The feedback includes, for example, clicking, commenting, forwarding, liking/disliking, etc. The feedback is transmitted to the advertiser account <b>1112</b> through the bi-directional communication channel.

0061<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 15</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between multiple entities and one target on a social network platform, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. In this example, a plurality of entities (advertisers) are identified for the target (user), and the bi-directional communication channels are established between the advertiser accounts <b>1112</b> and the target account <b>1116</b>. Different from <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 14</figref>, the index stored in the target-ad archive <b>226</b>, instead of the ad-target archive <b>228</b>, is applied by the social network message broadcasting units <b>1402</b> of the identified advertiser accounts <b>1112</b> in order to determine the target account <b>1116</b> where the messages are transmitted.

0062<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 16</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between one entity and multiple targets, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. Different from <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 14</figref>, display advertising, instead of social network messaging, is applied to broadcast content to the targets. In this example, the advertising serving mechanism <b>404</b> is configured to, for each advertiser account <b>1112</b>, retrieve content from the advertisement archive <b>206</b> and/or promotion archive <b>208</b> and transmit the content to the target accounts <b>1116</b> identified by the index stored in the ad-target archive <b>228</b>. In the social network setting, regular display advertising with dynamic meta contents being the most-recent advertising messages are presented by the display adversities output <b>1602</b> of each target account <b>1116</b>.

0063<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 17</figref> depicts information exchange through bi-directional communication channels established between multiple entities and one target, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. In this example, a plurality of entities (advertisers) are identified for the target (user), and the bi-directional communication channels are established between the advertiser accounts <b>1112</b> and the target account <b>1116</b>. Different from <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 16</figref>, the index stored in the target-ad archive <b>226</b>, instead of the ad-target archive <b>228</b>, is applied by the advertising serving mechanism <b>404</b> in order to determine, for each advertiser account <b>1112</b>, the corresponding target account <b>1116</b> where the display advertising is provided.

0064<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 18</figref> is a system diagram for an exemplary online activity monitor of the system for online advertising, according to an embodiment of the present teaching. The online activity monitor <b>306</b> may include a fee evaluator <b>1802</b> configured to calculate a monetary amount to be charged to each entity based on information related to the monitored activities between the advertiser account <b>1112</b> and target account <b>1116</b> through the bi-directional communication channel. The information may be collected by various means, including a traffic volume monitor <b>1804</b>, an advertising type analyzer <b>1806</b>, a promptness evaluator <b>1808</b>, a response monitor <b>1810</b>, and a distribution monitor <b>1812</b>. In one example, the monetary amount may be determined based on multiplication of volume of content delivered from the advertiser account <b>1112</b>, number of followers (target accounts <b>1116</b>), and rate (cost per byte per follower at a position). The volume of content may be monitored by the traffic volume monitor <b>1804</b>. The number of followers may be monitored by the distribution monitor <b>1812</b>. As to the rate, it may be determined based on a display advertising auction/price bidding model at the connection initiation stage. For example, when multiple advertisers or advertisements are provided to a user, the ranking (position) of each advertiser or advertisement on the recommendation list may affect the rate.

0065In another example, instead of applying the auction/price bidding model to determine the rate, the rate may be fixed depending on the type of connection relationship. The permanent/premium relationship has the highest rate; the temporary/short-term relationship has the medium rate, while the implicit relationship has the lowest rate. The rate may be also determined based on the strength of the connection, which is determined by the combined score in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 7 and 9</figref>, quality/authority of the advertiser or advertisement, promptness (how timely the users receive the broadcasted content) determined by the promptness evaluator <b>1808</b>, the type of content being broadcasted (e.g., text, rich media, etc.) obtained by the advertising type analyzer <b>1806</b>, and the feedback on the delivered content (e.g., positive, negative, neutral) collected by the response monitor <b>1810</b>. In another example, each message may contain tiny URLs, thus the advertisers may be charged with a click through rate similarly as in the cost per click model. As described before, the advertisements may be delivered in the form of display advertising instead of social network messages. In this case, the monetary amount may also depend on impressions.

0066It is understood that, the broadcasting may be cross platforms, meaning once the connections are established, users may receive the advertising messages of any third party social media products. For example, the user may sign into the system <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> with the user's id of any third party social media products or directly sign into the third party social media products. In that case, the revenue generated by charging the advertisers may be shared with the third party social media product provider.

0067To implement the present teaching, computer hardware platforms may be used as the hardware platform(s) for one or more of the elements described herein. The hardware elements, operating systems, and programming languages of such computers are conventional in nature, and it is presumed that those skilled in the art are adequately familiar therewith to adapt those technologies to implement the DCP processing essentially as described herein. A computer with user interface elements may be used to implement a personal computer (PC) or other type of work station or terminal device, although a computer may also act as a server if appropriately programmed. It is believed that those skilled in the art are familiar with the structure, programming, and general operation of such computer equipment and as a result the drawings should be self-explanatory.

0068<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 19</figref> depicts a general computer architecture on which the present teaching can be implemented and has a functional block diagram illustration of a computer hardware platform that includes user interface elements. The computer may be a general-purpose computer or a special purpose computer. This computer <b>1900</b> can be used to implement any components of the online advertising architecture as described herein. Different components of the system <b>200</b>, <b>300</b>, <b>400</b> can all be implemented on one or more computers such as computer <b>1900</b>, via its hardware, software program, firmware, or a combination thereof. Although only one such computer is shown, for convenience, the computer functions relating to online advertising may be implemented in a distributed fashion on a number of similar platforms, to distribute the processing load.

0069The computer <b>1900</b>, for example, includes COM ports <b>1902</b> connected to and from a network connected thereto to facilitate data communications. The computer <b>1900</b> also includes a central processing unit (CPU) <b>1904</b>, in the form of one or more processors, for executing program instructions. The exemplary computer platform includes an internal communication bus <b>1906</b>, program storage and data storage of different forms, e.g., disk <b>1908</b>, read only memory (ROM) <b>1910</b>, or random access memory (RAM) <b>1912</b>, for various data files to be processed and/or communicated by the computer, as well as possibly program instructions to be executed by the CPU <b>1904</b>. The computer <b>1900</b> also includes an I/O component <b>1914</b>, supporting input/output flows between the computer <b>1900</b> and other components therein such as user interface elements <b>1916</b>. The computer <b>1900</b> may also receive programming and data via network communications.

0070Hence, aspects of the method of online advertising, as outlined above, may be embodied in programming. Program aspects of the technology may be thought of as “products” or “articles of manufacture” typically in the form of executable code and/or associated data that is carried on or embodied in a type of machine readable medium. Tangible non-transitory “storage” type media include any or all of the memory or other storage for the computers, processors or the like, or associated modules thereof, such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives, disk drives and the like, which may provide storage at any time for the software programming.

0071All or portions of the software may at times be communicated through a network such as the Internet or various other telecommunication networks. Such communications, for example, may enable loading of the software from one computer or processor into another. Thus, another type of media that may bear the software elements includes optical, electrical, and electromagnetic waves, such as used across physical interfaces between local devices, through wired and optical landline networks and over various air-links. The physical elements that carry such waves, such as wired or wireless links, optical links or the like, also may be considered as media bearing the software. As used herein, unless restricted to tangible “storage” media, terms such as computer or machine “readable medium” refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution.

0072Hence, a machine readable medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, a tangible storage medium, a carrier wave medium or physical transmission medium. Non-volatile storage media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as any of the storage devices in any computer(s) or the like, which may be used to implement the system or any of its components as shown in the drawings. Volatile storage media include dynamic memory, such as a main memory of such a computer platform. Tangible transmission media include coaxial cables; copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that form a bus within a computer system. Carrier-wave transmission media can take the form of electric or electromagnetic signals, or acoustic or light waves such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media therefore include for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD or DVD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical storage medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave transporting data or instructions, cables or links transporting such a carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can read programming code and/or data. Many of these forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to a processor for execution.

0073Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present teachings are amenable to a variety of modifications and/or enhancements. For example, although the implementation of various components described above may be embodied in a hardware device, it can also be implemented as a software only solution. In addition, the components of the system as disclosed herein can be implemented as a firmware, firmware/software combination, firmware/hardware combination, or a hardware/firmware/software combination.

0074While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the best mode and/or other examples, it is understood that various modifications may be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may be implemented in various forms and examples, and that the teachings may be applied in numerous applications, only some of which have been described herein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and all applications, modifications and variations that fall within the true scope of the present teachings.